Middleburg's Community Newspaper
Middleburg Town Council Report

Homes, Not Hotel Rooms

· By Jay Hubbard
A resident speaks during the public hearings on short-term rentals, April 25, 2024. (Town of Middleburg meeting video)
A resident speaks during the public hearings on short-term rentals, April 25, 2024. (Town of Middleburg meeting video)

When Salamander won approval for its resort, it also won the right to build 49 houses beside it, and Council members remember being told those would be homes. In April the first owners asked to rent them by the night. After two meetings, a lawyer's brief, a packed room, and a hearing that ran until 11:35 p.m., Council turned down both Salamander-managed requests, including one for a house owned by Salamander founder Sheila Johnson's company, and approved two other applicants on tighter terms than they asked for.

Council met April 11 without Councilmembers Kevin Daly and Peter Leonard-Morgan, and April 25 with everyone, though Daly left at 8:50 p.m., before the votes. Mayor Bridge Littleton votes only to break a tie. Council held its strategic retreat in Culpeper April 2–3.

Homes, Not Hotel Rooms

Four applications came to Council with the Planning Commission's blessing ▶ video:

  • 800 Old Saddle Drive, owned by Salamander Farms, LLC, Ms. Johnson's company, to be managed by the resort; up to 180 nights a year. The Commission's vote to recommend it was 4-3.
  • 606 Martingale Ridge Drive, owned by Alexander Perdikis, also resort-managed; the Commission recommended 90 nights.
  • 601 Martingale Ridge Drive, owned by Mary and Tom Gillespie of Great Falls, managed by Loudoun Stay; 90 nights recommended.
  • 700 West Washington Street in Ridgeview, owned by Daree Goodman, a flight attendant, booked through Airbnb with a local manager; 90 nights recommended.

The ordinance lets Council allow up to 180 nights a year, but only for a house "used primarily for residential use," which it defines as 183 days of residential occupancy. That was the fight. Salamander's lawyer, John Walburn of McGuire Woods, argued that short-term guests count as residents, and that a house rented 180 nights and empty the rest would still qualify. Town Attorney Martin Crim said no: a resident has to stay at least 30 days at a time. And when Ms. Johnson's declaration promised 183 days of residential use according to her own understanding of the term, Crim called it "a mental reservation," and "clearly unacceptable."

Littleton laid out what troubled him. The Comprehensive Plan says Middleburg is not to become "a Vail or Kiawah Island," and "the word community is in our comp plan literally almost 80 times." Salamander's own rules for the Residences say the hotel and the houses "are integrated physically and operationally as one resort." Owners who join the resort's rental program must pay $600,000 for furnishings Salamander chooses, every house has an owner's closet for locking away personal things, and Salamander holds the right of first refusal whenever one sells. He read back what Salamander President Prem Devadas said at the groundbreaking: "we are creating a Salamander vacation rental experience." And on April 11: "I trust you. I don't know the next Prem. ... we're making a decision which will last for centuries."

Devadas said the rules exist to keep the neighborhood at the resort's standard, that the furniture rule is a deterrent to renting rather than an incentive, that only three of ten owners have applied, and that "party house is not a part of what Salamander has ever done." He apologized for the groundbreaking remark and offered to cut the guests from ten to eight "in a second." Vice Mayor Chris Bernard reminded him who had asked for the meeting: "we didn't ask you guys to come here and apply for a short term rental."

Councilmember Darlene Kirk, who was on Council when the resort was approved, said "I'm really angry." "We kept upping the number of rooms until we got the 168," she said. "And we made it very clear we wanted these to be homes, not rentals for the hotel." Councilmember Bud Jacobs said the resort's good relationship with the Town, and an owner's wish to cover costs, were "not relevant for this discussion": "People in this town understand what is at stake."

Council denied the Old Saddle Drive permit 4-2, Bernard, Curran, Jacobs and Kirk in favor of denial, Leonard-Morgan and Pearson against, finding the house wouldn't be primarily residential and that ten transient guests for 180 nights wouldn't be in harmony with the neighborhood ▶ video. The Perdikis permit was denied 6-0, after Deputy Town Manager Will Moore reported the house had had its occupancy permit for a year and Salamander couldn't say whether its owners had ever spent a night there ▶ video.

The Gillespies came to every meeting, offered to give up the permit if they sell, and cut their request to eight guests and 120 nights. "You can't prove a negative," Tom Gillespie said of the fears raised against them. Council found they would meet the residency test and approved 90 nights, 4-2, with Kirk and Pearson opposed ▶ video. Ms. Goodman, renting her only home while she flies, got 60 nights, 5-1, Pearson opposed, after Littleton noted that Ridgeview is an older neighborhood that has had bad experiences with unpermitted rentals, and Jacobs warned that Airbnb's star ratings vet nobody ▶ video.

Littleton closed by thanking the applicants for sitting through it all, and offered to work with them to get these done "in the right way." (Loudoun Now, April 29.)

Also This Month

  • Mickie Gordon: Legion Commander Gary Nickelson said County Parks will keep cricket on the main field this season, "so that leaves us without a place to play," and asked the Town to "help bend their arm and give us our field back." Miss Hosseini, the Legion's oratorical entrant, took second in the state.
  • Richmond: the Governor amended the speed-limit bill, HB 1071, to require re-enactment next year and a VDOT study, and amended the short-term rental bill, SB 544, in ways that further limit changes to the Town's ordinance.
  • EV chargers: Council approved a lease to Greenspot for Level 2 chargers in the Liberty Street lot and on West Federal Street, 5-0, for up to 20 years, at no cost to the Town.
  • Fire safety: after February's downtown fire, the County Fire Marshal held a forum at Town Hall April 23 and begins door-to-door inspections the week of April 29.
  • Utilities budget: water and sewer rates rise 3 percent; $355,000 goes to capital work, including old water mains in Ridgeview and a five-year video inspection of the sewers.
  • Remembered: Council adopted a resolution in memory of Talbot Mack, who taught for decades at The Hill School.
  • The Arts Council has 41 places for artists at Art in the Burg on May 11 and more than 60 applicants, and wants events for the slow months.
  • Police: after a posting on Indeed, Chief Shaun Jones had three new applications in a week, one arriving during the meeting.
  • Housekeeping: the Virginia Municipal League asked Littleton to chair its finance policy committee; the Swagit video contract was renewed; the Town applied for a wellhead protection grant; Deputy Town Manager Will Moore thanked Martha Semmes for covering zoning while he was out.

Public Comment

April 11 ▶ video

  • Gary Nickelson, Commander of American Legion Post 295, reported on the Legion's young people and asked for help getting the baseball field at Mickie Gordon Park back.
  • Michael Rocconi, Sycamore Street, noted that 30 percent of the Salamander homeowners had applied for short-term rentals, warned that could mean 15 of 49 houses, and asked Council to approve none unless the permit ends with a sale.

April 25 ▶ video

  • Donna Strama, Orange Drive, asked why the County put an EV charger at the library's few parking spaces rather than Town Hall.
  • Public hearing on 800 Old Saddle Drive: Megan Gallagher, East Marshall Street, asked for denial; she figured ten guests for 180 nights at 1,800 guests a year. John Ross warned of a precedent that any house could become "a party house." Donna Strama asked Council to say no. Julie Callens, Stonewall Avenue, whose house backs up to the development, said "my gut, it's just wrong. Once you let the genie out of the bag. You never get it in." Liz White, Stonewall Avenue, asked who would be accountable. John Pittman, Piedmont Drive, warned Council would have to grant the same to everyone. Kathyjo Shea, Foxcroft Road, a member of the Council that adopted the ordinance in 2018, asked Council to apply the rules. Mike Welch, South Madison Street, asked Council to follow the ordinance as written: "I don't expect somebody to pull the law out from underneath me if I comply to the law as it's written today."
  • Public hearing on 606 Martingale Ridge: Megan Gallagher asked for denial; Liz White spoke about the effect on neighbors of not knowing who is next door; Mike Welch disagreed; Donna Strama opposed; Karen Jackson, Stonewall Avenue, a business owner for 34 years, said she could see both houses' pools and grills from her yard and didn't want a bachelor party behind her every Saturday; Mary Gillespie answered several of the concerns.
  • Public hearing on 601 Martingale Ridge: Megan Gallagher supported it but asked for 30 nights; Linda McKenna, South Madison Street, supported it; Donna Strama asked for denial; Julie Callens, whose house backs up to it, asked for no late-night pool parties; Gary Nickelson, Chimneys Lane, suggested 60 nights.
  • Public hearing on 700 West Washington: Megan Gallagher did not oppose it but said 180 nights was too many; Linda McKenna, the property manager, spoke for it.

Tips & Wags (opinion)

Tip of the Hat to the Gillespies and Daree Goodman, who came to every meeting, answered every question in person, and gave up the right to sell their permits.

Tip of the Hat to Deputy Town Manager Will Moore, whose reading of the Residences' covenants found the parking rule nobody else had.

Wag of the Finger to rule changes and declarations delivered the day of the hearing, and to "my understanding" of the definition of residential.

Devil's Advocate (opinion): Mike Welch had a point. The Town wrote an ordinance that allows up to 180 nights, and Salamander's owners applied under it. The resort has been a good neighbor for a decade, and it offered every assurance asked of it, including dropping the permits on sale. If Council now believes 180 nights is too many anywhere in town, the honest fix is to change the ordinance for everyone, not to discover its limits one application at a time.

Coming Up

  • April 27: Arbor Day, Town Clean-Up, Drug Take Back and Shred Fest.
  • May 4: Farmers Market opens on the Town Green. May 11: Art in the Burg.
  • May 9: Council adopts its strategic priorities from the retreat.
  • May 31: Middleburg Day and the Town Hall ribbon cutting.
  • Spring: budget adoption; Visit Loudoun's funding request; the short-term rental ordinance itself, if Council takes it up.

Sources: the meeting videos (April 11, April 25), the Town's minutes (pending approval) and the transcripts attached to them. Quotes come from the Town contractor's transcripts; each ▶ link opens the video at the start of that agenda item.

Other sources cited: